TRUMP’S PHONE CALL WITH THE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE WAS A DISASTER

1) Trump told the President of France that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO.

2) Officials say Trump’s speech was “disorganized” and hard to follow since he drifted between sloganeering and then pivoted back to ranting.

3) The official said Trump speaks in private just like how he speaks to public crowds; disjointed, random, inability to concentrate on one specific topic and with variability in his emotion depending on subject. [The Intellectualist]

President Donald Trump spent much of a recent phone call with French President Francois Hollande veering off into rants about the U.S. getting shaken down by other countries, according to a senior official with knowledge of the call, creating an awkward interaction with a critical U.S. ally.

While the Hollande call Jan. 28 did touch on pressing matters between the two countries — namely the fight against the Islamic State — Trump also used the exchange to vent about his personal fixations, including his belief that the United States is being taken advantage of by China and international bodies like NATO, the official said.

At one point, Trump declared that the French can continue protecting NATO, but that the U.S. “wants our money back,” the official said, adding that Trump seemed to be “obsessing over money.”

“It was a difficult conversation, because he talks like he’s speaking publicly,” the official said. “It’s not the usual way heads of state speak to each other. He speaks with slogans, and the conversation was not completely organized.”